


Shotgun Wedding

by st_aurafina



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alice marries FP, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baby Polly, F/M, Shotgun Wedding, Teen Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 05:56:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12126006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st_aurafina/pseuds/st_aurafina
Summary: They've always been a trainwreck.





	Shotgun Wedding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snickfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/gifts).



Alice gets pregnant at the end of her senior year, and manages to keep it secret in the weeks leading up to graduation. Then Alice's family kick her out, there's a shotgun wedding, and she moves into the trailer with FP while his dad is serving his term. 

They fight because they're still figuring this stuff out: who they are, who they are to each other. Every night in the darkness, though, FP touches her like she's made of precious metal, warms her under his hands, and she knows she made the right decision. 

Money is so tight. Her cadetship at the local paper doesn't make enough to feed even one of them, though Hal's pretty generous with buying her lunch and not asking too many questions. She's good at her job, but she's got to keep the stories rolling in. 

FP gets fired almost every other week, from the garage, from the construction site. She knows he's trying, but the world's not set up to let him be his own boss yet, which is about the only way he's going to be able to hold a job. When he comes home one night with a handful of hundred dollar bills, she knows he's doing something that's going to lead to trouble. 

Tired and queasy, Alice slaps his face. "What kind of life will it be for this kid if you end up in jail?" she says. "You might as well get lost now." 

FP storms out into the dark and Alice spends the night crying and cramming Saltines in her mouth. It's just before dawn when he comes back, and Alice has been up long enough that the morning sickness catches her by surprise. She's puking when he lets himself back into the trailer, and he comes to hold her hair out of the way.

He strokes the back of her neck while she brings all those Saltines back up. She's never looking at a cracker again. 

"It's okay," he says. "It's gonna be okay. We're gonna be parents. You're right. We gotta be better for this kid." 

The baby's a girl, red and blotchy, screwed up like a ball of paper. Alice feels like she's been thrown from a boat, drowning in a wash of hormones and fatigue and confusion. She's horrified by the magnitude of it all, and how there's nobody to help them: no grandma coming to stay for a few weeks, no girlfriends to drop off casseroles like they do in the Lifetime movies. She lies in the hospital bed paralysed with terror and aching all over. 

FP can fit the baby's head into the palm of his hand, her little body lying along his forearm. "Jelly Bean," he sings to her at the end of the bed. "You're my little Jelly Bean." 

He'd die for her, Alice realises; he'd be glad to do it. She doesn't know yet if she would, and that hurts even more than giving birth.

FP meets her eyes, sees her fear. "Don't worry," he says. "Me and Jelly Bean, we've got this. You just get better, let us look out for you til then." 

Alice still doesn't know if she can do this, but damned if she'll let FP be the brave one, not after what she just went through. 

"Okay, but we're not calling her Jelly Bean," she says. She doesn't say it, but what she means is that this kid is getting a nice name because the poor kid's going to get judged enough on her background. She looks down at the little face, crumpled and oddly shaped, with FP's chin jutting out ready for a fight. "Polly," she says. "We're calling her Polly." 

"Polly," FP says, rolling it around his mouth. He puts his lips to the baby's head. "You're still my Jelly Bean though." 

Alice lies back against the pillows, suddenly curious. "What would you have called her, if she was a boy?" 

FP's eyes light up and Alice laughs. The road ahead is rough but moments like this will surely make it worth the bumps.


End file.
